Liberals haven’t been as easy to radicalize. Establishment dems had strong support and to a lesser degree still do. When MAGA took over the GOP the establishment Republicans were the least popular they had ever been.
At the Atlanta State Capitol, you got Sean Hannity. In New York city, Newt Gingrich. San Antonio, TX had Glenn Beck. Many of the others listed were right wing talk radio personalities at the time.
The Tea Party liked to pretend it was grassroots, but you look at that speaker list and it’s obviously astroturfing. This was basically day one for the movement, and they somehow have all these high level people. They would go on to get rid of the few moderate Republicans around and called them “establishment”, but Gingrich is as establishment GOP as they come.
The right has long courted its wingnut base for ideas and put a plan into action to put those ideas into legislation or court precedent. Even when they’ve had a small or non-existent majority in Congress. Democrats are not nearly as interested in doing that. They know their base is clamoring for proper government funded healthcare, but haven’t done a thing to help that along in over a decade.
Fascists will always be able to get the establishment on board while anti-capitalists and progressives will always be on their own. Anti-capitalists and progressives threaten their wealth and privilege while fascists seek to preserve it. That’s why we’re still stuck tying our laces while fascists are halfway down the street.
I draw a distinction between “complaining” and “lodging a complaint”, based on the subject and recipient.
“Complaining” is when the recipient of the complaint is someone other than the subject (e.g. criticizing the actions of Democrats to online leftists). This doesn’t really accomplish anything.
“Lodging a complaint” is when the recipient is the subject (e.g. criticizing the actions of Democrats via direct correspondence, or criticizing online leftists in a space inhabited predominantly by online leftists). This is effective communication and has the potential to actually prompt a response to the complaint.
SMCF is pretty clearly utilizing the second to bring attention to the problem of the first. And it is a huge problem. These leftist spaces are packed with ideological purists who favor moral superiority to effective action that requires strategy and compromise.
Liberals haven’t been as easy to radicalize. Establishment dems had strong support and to a lesser degree still do. When MAGA took over the GOP the establishment Republicans were the least popular they had ever been.
The establishment Republicans were often behind it. Just look at the leadup to the 2009 Tax Day protests:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090414225410/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2228277/posts
At the Atlanta State Capitol, you got Sean Hannity. In New York city, Newt Gingrich. San Antonio, TX had Glenn Beck. Many of the others listed were right wing talk radio personalities at the time.
The Tea Party liked to pretend it was grassroots, but you look at that speaker list and it’s obviously astroturfing. This was basically day one for the movement, and they somehow have all these high level people. They would go on to get rid of the few moderate Republicans around and called them “establishment”, but Gingrich is as establishment GOP as they come.
The right has long courted its wingnut base for ideas and put a plan into action to put those ideas into legislation or court precedent. Even when they’ve had a small or non-existent majority in Congress. Democrats are not nearly as interested in doing that. They know their base is clamoring for proper government funded healthcare, but haven’t done a thing to help that along in over a decade.
Fascists will always be able to get the establishment on board while anti-capitalists and progressives will always be on their own. Anti-capitalists and progressives threaten their wealth and privilege while fascists seek to preserve it. That’s why we’re still stuck tying our laces while fascists are halfway down the street.
All I see are excuses.
They were able to make a change without complaining.
Not excusing, just explaining. What are you doing to make a change? All I hear from you is complaining.
I draw a distinction between “complaining” and “lodging a complaint”, based on the subject and recipient.
“Complaining” is when the recipient of the complaint is someone other than the subject (e.g. criticizing the actions of Democrats to online leftists). This doesn’t really accomplish anything.
“Lodging a complaint” is when the recipient is the subject (e.g. criticizing the actions of Democrats via direct correspondence, or criticizing online leftists in a space inhabited predominantly by online leftists). This is effective communication and has the potential to actually prompt a response to the complaint.
SMCF is pretty clearly utilizing the second to bring attention to the problem of the first. And it is a huge problem. These leftist spaces are packed with ideological purists who favor moral superiority to effective action that requires strategy and compromise.